IN MOST OF THE SUPREME COURT'S IMPORTANT RULINGS THIS YEAR, THE COMBINATION WAS FIVE RIGHT, FOUR LEFT

THE DEATH OF FORMER CHIEF JUSTICE Warren Burger was a reminder of how long the Supreme Court has been under watch for signs that the rule of its liberal wing was over: roughly, it would seem, from the day Richard Nixon named Burger to the court in 1969. For the next two decades, the liberals managed to score victories in the face of what should have been superior numbers. But even if they have lost ground slowly, they have lost it all the same. Last week as Burger was laid to rest, so too was another good bit of the Earl...